The Last Words of My English Grandmother
There were some dirty plates
and a glass of milk
beside her on a small table
near the rank, disheveled bed--
Wrinkled and nearly blind
she lay and snored
rousing with anger in her tones
to cry for food,
Gimme something to eat--
They're starving me--
I'm all right--I won't go
to the hospital.No, no, no
Give me something to eat!
Let me take you
to the hospital, I said
and after you are well
you can do as you please.
She smiled, Yes
you do what you please first
then I can do what I please--
Oh, oh, oh! she cried
as the ambulance men lifted
her to the stretcher--
Is this what you call
making me comfortable?
By now her mind was clear--
Oh you think you're smart
you young people,
she said, but I'll tell you
you don't know anything.
Then we started.
On the way
we passed a long row
of elms. She looked at them
awhile out of
the ambulance window and said,
What are all those
fuzzy looking things out there?
Trees?Well, I'm tired
of them and rolled her head away.
poem by William Carlos Williams
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Related quotes
The Ambulance that Got Away
When Grandpa suffered a turn, we
Called the ambulance, right away,
They strapped him onto a gurney
So he couldn't sit up, or sway,
‘We'll see you up at the hospital, '
We cried, as we waved him well,
The ambulance went with bells and lights
Like a demon bound for hell!
Grandma wasn't at home, we
Had to phone her on the cell,
She couldn't come back just then, she said
She was having a fainting spell,
So we waited until he was settled in
Then drove in a convoy down,
To the hospital at Ullarook,
Just fifty miles from town.
The nurse at the desk said: ‘No-one here
By the name of Alfred Groom,
We only have private patients here,
We bed them, one to a room,
If he hasn't got private cover, then
You'll have to look elsewhere,
Maybe the ambulance took him off
To the hospital at Bulnare.'
We phoned the hospital at Bulnare:
‘He hasn't been seen round here,
There was an ambulance, come to think,
But he left with a flea in his ear!
We don't take patients from out of town
There's few enough beds for us,
He's probably over at Gundacoot,
They run their own private bus.'
We drove ten miles to Gundacoot,
An ambulance sat in the drive,
We thought, ‘Thank God, he must be here!
Let's hope that he's still alive! '
We all raced in through the sliding doors
And crowded around the Nurse:
‘Who? Alfred Groom, in a private room?
Not here! ' We left with a curse!
We split up the convoy into two,
I drove to the nearest town,
A middling place called Jerribee
With a hospital, quite run down,
‘The government cut our funding, '
Said the Nurse in the parking bay,
‘We shut down twenty beds last week,
Your Dad isn't here today.'
My son had travelled the other way
To Inkermine on the coast,
The hospital there had a hundred beds
The locals were wont to boast,
‘He's isn't here, but the ambulance
Was spotted on leaving town, '
My son had sighed on his endless ride
When he called on the mobile phone.
That night when Grandma got her breath
She went to the ambulance place,
She battered him with her umbrella
Knocking his glasses clean off his face:
‘Where did you take him, tell me now
Or I'll have to call the police!
What? Are your ears painted on! '
‘We took him to Bungaleese! '
The only place that would take him was
The Medical Clinic there,
It isn't even a hospital
And you sit on a leather chair,
When we finally got to Bungaleese
Grandpa could barely talk,
We said, ‘We'll get you an ambulance! '
‘No thanks, ' he growled, ‘I'll walk! '
29 August 2012
poem by David Lewis Paget
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a Real life nightmare
It feels like another life
and had been at another time
and place,
where I knocked and knocked
at the locked bedroom door.
At last I found a key
and still something
was holding it
and I pushed with all my might
and at last it opened.
She was lying on the bed
with outstretched arms
and empty pill bottles
next to her head
and there was no note
to say farewell
and why she did it,
to this day
only she can tell.
She was still breathing
and I felt a weak pulse
and I was without strength
from flu,
but I picked her up
and got her over my shoulder.
The car was too far
and there was nobody
willing to help me
and I stumbled over my weak legs
and got hold of her again
and carried her to the car.
I passed over three red robots
without any car’s being there
and she belched over
my shirt and pants
and just before the state hospital
two metro police cars
started to follow me
with flashing blue lights
and screaming sirens.
I stopped at the ambulance
drop-off point
and was cursed by ambulance men
that was standing there,
and the metro police
rushed to me
took a look at her
and went on their way
and nobody wanted to help.
Anger gave me strength
and I carried her
into the hospital
and went straight through admissions
and followed the red line
to casualties
and somebody
brought a wheelchair
and some doctor
saved her life.
The doctor said that the belching
saved her,
but today I am just glad
that she’s out of my life
and that I do not have to face
another nightmare.
poem by Gert Strydom
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Hospital Food
Coming down through the alley
Trying to walk without a sound
It doesnt really matter
cause there aint no one around
Tip toe through the alley and
Tip toe through your life
You still got it coming
Be it gun be it knife
Next thing you know
Youre eating hospital food
Karaoke castration
Take the wasp alive
Hes gonna sting you anyway
And take you to the hive
Yesterday was suckin and
Tomorrows looking bad
Who knew that today
Was the only thing I had
Hospital food
Want some hospital food
Hospital food
Delicious hospital food
In your tribute album to the world
You must never forget
To sing the one about the cat
Whos always getting wet
He always got a problem
Hes a very bitter dude
And now hes complaining
About his hospital food
Hospital food
Its gonna help the medicine go down
Want some hospital food
Gonna take a walk without a sound
A little hospital food
Helps the spoonful of sugar come up
I want some hospital food
In your blender and in my cup
song performed by by Eels
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Seriously Speaking This Time
well this is what i can say
even without you
asking me,
about poetry?
well, it should not be taken seriously
it is just
poetry anyway
nothing serious like a man dying to get to the hospital
inside an ambulance
if only he hears the sound of that godamn ambulance
oh my
he must have known that it is
joking.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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Jam..
On the road
Sound horn
Running ambulance...
Jam on the road
Many buses
Bycycles
Twoweller's
Car's
Stoped ther...
Ambulance
Also stoped...
Patient was
Critical stage
In side the ambulance...
Road way was
Not clear...
O2 cylinder
was emty;
patient respration
Was very fast...
The road way
Clear ambulance
Move very fast...
But;
Patient was serieas
On the ambulance...
Sound horn only
Shouting
Way for the road
Patient was died...
poem by Otteri Selvakumar
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Sex And The Medical Profession
Sex and the Medical Profession
I’m sitting in my car waiting for my wife who is at mass
I find it impossible to believe in any religion, but I say
nothing it is important for my wife to believe in a merciful
god. Paris, and agony, my wife prayed but did call
an ambulance. Battling doctors, how young they are, I felt
like a low paid, reluctant actor in a hospital drama, one
who has to play the nurse when he really wanted to be
the famous heart transplant surgeon.
The doc asked if I smoked. No! She looked sullen since
I didn’t, it is so easy to blame the fag. I said I had smoked
15 years ago, she looked relieved and told me to keep up
the good, work: she removed the catheter a lovely pee
Is better than sex, if temporarily, now I feel like making
love, my wife tells I’m deluded, I say nothing but bid my
time, keep a blanket in my car in case I should meet
someone who is equally barmy.
poem by Oskar Hansen
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Four Oclock In The Morning
4 oclock in the morning
When the ambulance arrived
4 oclock in the morning
When the ambulance arrived
The blue lights were flashing
As they lay my baby down inside
They took her to the hospital
In the darkest hour of the night
They took her to the hospital
In the darkest hour of the night
It was silent as the grave
As my baby lay beneath the light
They turned on the gas and cut her open
She didnt feel no pain
They turned on the gas and cut her open
She didnt feel no more pain
Daylight was breaking
And down came the rain
Down came the rain
Down came the rain
Down came the rain
Down came the rain
song performed by by Pogues
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I said, 'See you in the hospital my dear
I said, 'See you in the hospital my dear',
as I watched your mum disappear.
To Dellwood in an ambulance she sped,
'Will it be a girl or a boy', I said.
The telephone rang, 'It's a girl'.
To the hospital I went in a whirl.
Our beautiful Max lay besides her mum.
Little did I know what was to come.
Before your birth I called you Qasimodo.
A great mistake for I wasn't to know.
That eight years later you'd find out
what the name 'Qasi' was all about.
So I promised that I'd pay you 10p
every time that I called you 'little Qasi.'
But it was so difficult for me to quit
and cost a fortune to break the habit
Driver Smith
'Twas Driver Smith of Battery A was anxious to see a fight;
He thought of the Transvaal all the day, he thought of it all the night --
"Well, if the battery's left behind, I'll go to the war," says he,
"I'll go a-driving and ambulance in the ranks of the A.M.C.
"I'm fairly sick of these here parades -- it's want of a change that kills --
A-charging the Randwick Rifle Range and aiming at Surry Hills.
And I think if I go with the ambulance I'm certain to find a show,
For they have to send the Medical men wherever the troops can go.
"Wherever the rifle bullets flash and the Maxims raise a din,
It's here you'll find the Medical men a-raking the wounded in --
A-raking 'em in like human flies -- and a driver smart like me
Will find some scope for his extra skill in the ranks of the A.M.C."
So Driver Smith he went to war a-cracking his driver's whip,
From ambulance to collecting base they showed him his regular trip.
And he said to the boys that were marching past, as he gave his whip a crack,
"You'll walk yourselves to the fight," says he -- "Lord spare me, I'll drive you back."
Now the fight went on in the Transvaal hills for the half of a day or more,
And Driver Smith he worked his trip -- all aboard for the seat of war!
He took his load from the stretcher men and hurried 'em homeward fast
Till he heard a sound that he knew full well -- a battery rolling past.
He heard the clink of the leading chains and the roll of the guns behind --
He heard the crack of the drivers' whips, and he says to 'em, "Strike me blind,
I'll miss me trip with this ambulance, although I don't care to shirk,
But I'll take the car off the line today and follow the guns at work."
Then up the Battery Colonel came a-cursing 'em black in the face.
"Sit down and shift 'e,, you drivers there, and gallop 'em into place."
So off the Battery rolled and swung, a-going a merry dance,
And holding his own with the leading gun goes Smith with his ambulance.
They opened fire on the mountain side, a-peppering by and large,
When over the hill above their flank the Boers came down at the charge;
They rushed the guns with a daring rush, a-volleying left and right,
And Driver Smith and his ambulance moved up to the edge of the fight.
The gunners stuck to their guns like men, and fought as the wild cats fight,
For a Battery man don't leave his gun with ever a hope in sight;
But the bullets sang and the Mausers cracked and the Battery men gave away,
Till Driver Smith with his ambulance drove into the thick of the fray.
He saw the head of the Transvaal troop a-thundering to and fro,
A hard old face with a monkey beard -- a face that he seemed to know;
"Now who's that leader?" said Driver Smith. "I've seen him before today.
Why, bless my heart, but it's Kruger's self," and he jumped for him straight away.
He collared old Kruger round the waist and hustled him into the van.
It wasn't according to stretcher drill for raising a wounded man;
But he forced him in and said, "All aboard, we're off for a little ride,
And you'll have the car to yourself," says he, "I reckon we're full inside."
He wheeled his team on the mountain side and set 'em a merry pace,
A-galloping over the rocks and stones, and a lot of the Boers gave chase;
Bur Driver Smith had a fairish start, and he said to the Boers, "Good-day,
You have Buckley's chance for to catch a man that was trained in Battery A."
He drove his team to the hospital bed and said to the P.M.O.,
"Beg pardon, sir, but I missed the trip, mistaking the way to go;
And Kruger came to the ambulance and asked could we spare a bed,
So I fetched him here, and we'll take him home to show for a bob a head."
So the word went round to the English troops to say they need fight no more,
For Driver Smith with his ambulance had ended the blooming war.
And in London now at the music halls he's starring it every night,
And drawing a hundred pounds a week to tell how he won the fight.
poem by Andrew Barton Paterson
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The ambulance outside.
Can you see that ambulance outside?
I suppose you wonder what it doing there?
Bet you think what's the nutter done now?
She's a right one her.
Thats what they all think.
She's an attention seeker and she's nuts.
It's what everybody thinks about me.
But if you look into my eyes.
You'll see a life time of pain.
The smile I wore was a disguise.
So what's that ambulance doing outside?
The nutter slashed her arms.
She killed her self.
So that ambulance outside,
Has come to take the nutter away.
poem by Amy Louise Kerswell
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Red Ambulance
so that ambulance just went by
and if you were high
the flashing lights would be a show
red as the blood she spilled
red enough to let her go
she filled in the outlines with her nails
just as red as she
then there was a red circus, for sale
as she red as she would be
and the fire was just so
that the red blazes burned her eyes
i think it was the red that let her go
like the red from her eyes after a person cries
so red, so real, from wrist to lights
so red, everytime, even in the night
shes like the savior
or the sacrafice
her nails, or the nails of the cross?
was it it the cross on the red ambulance
with the red lights?
or was it the cross of the savior, the sacrifice
was it all red every night?
is this a remake or the living
from the wrists
on the nails
where the lights
on the ambulance
with the cross
of the savior
with the nails
on the wrists
in the ambulance
with the cross
of the savior
red from the nails
on the wrists
that lay in the ambulance
the flashing red lights
near the cross
of the savior?
the sacrifice?
in the wrists
red with nails
on the cross
of savior or the saved?
ambulance
or cross
the wrists
the nails
the lights
the ambulance
the cross
the savior
with all the red
poem by Kathryn Garner
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Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie
Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme
I need it more
I need it more
Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme
Don't ask what for
Don't ask what for
Sitting here like a loaded gun
Waiting to go off
I've got nothing to do
But shoot my mouth off
Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme
I need it more
I need it more
Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme
Don't ask what for
Don't ask what for
I know the worlds got problems
I've got problems of my own
They aint the kind that
Can be solved with an
Atom bomb!
Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme
I need it more
I need it more
Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme
Don't ask what for
Don't ask what for
You know I'm gonna go out
Get something for my head
If I keep on doing this
I'm gonna end up dead
Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme
I need it more
I need it more
Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme
Don't ask what for
Don't ask what for
Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme
I need it more
I need it more
Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme
Don't ask what for
Don't ask what for
song performed by by A Perfect Circle
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A Life Lived
Life of spite and defiance
To watch people tooling around on Mars
To celebrate the end of the last war
To attend the funeral of corporate personhood
76th wedding anniversary walking across the dry Ganga
Hundredth birthday drinking my age in pints of beer
Why don't you join me? Consider yourself invited
To throw a bushel of rose petals from the space elevator
Zero emissions ambulance sweeping me to the hospital
And I'll saddle up my Horse for the ride home
All bad things must one day end and so will I
poem by Tribhuvan Mendiratta
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Still Smiling........
Smiled When Mother Took Me Into Her Arms For The First Time,
Smiled When Saw World Outside The Hospital For The First Time,
Smiled Whenever Went To School,
Smiled Even Being Laughed At....
And Called A Fool....
Smiled When Stood First In The Class,
Smiled When I Wasn't Misunderstood..... At Last!
Smiled When My Poem Was Said Wow!
Smiled When Realised That Only Day Is Today....
And Time Is Now......
Smiled When Got My 'True' Love,
Smiled As I Always Felt We Are Two Doves,
Smiled Even When Came To Know He's Not Mine,
Smiled Even When He Married My Friend.....
And Raised A Toast Of Wine,
Smiled Even When Lost Every Hope,
Smiled Even When Wasn't Able To Cope,
Smiled Even When Knew My End Is Near,
Smiled And Enjoyed Cutting My Nerve.......
No Fear...............
Smiled At Every Moment Of My Life,
Whenever, Wherever And Never Cried.............
But Now, I'm Lying Under A White Cover,
Father Putting Me On Fire.........
With No Blessings Left To Shower.....
People Around Have Nothing To Do With My Death
But Are Crying.........
And I'm............
Still Smiling.................................
poem by Apurva Jain
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The End
We decided to have the abortion, became
killers together. The period that came
changed nothing. They were dead, that young couple
who had been for life.
As we talked of it in bed, the crash
was not a surprise. We went to the window,
looked at the crushed cars and the gleaming
curved shears of glass as if we had
done it. Cops pulled the bodies out
Bloody as births from the small, smoking
aperture of the door, laid them
on the hill, covered them with blankets that soaked
through. Blood
began to pour
down my legs into my slippers. I stood
where I was until they shot the bound
form into the black hole
of the ambulance and stood the other one
up, a bandage covering its head,
stained where the eyes had been.
The next morning I had to kneel
an hour on that floor, to clean up my blood,
rubbing with wet cloths at those glittering
translucent spots, as one has to soak
a long time to deglaze the pan
when the feast is over.
Anonymous submission.
poem by Sharon Olds
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The Emergency Room
Here comes the ambulance
With another patient anew;
The emergency room staff are ready
With life-saving gadgets in view!
Is it another accident?
Is it a case of poisoning?
Is it a heart attack or an
Acute surgical emergency?
The casualty works night and day;
Triage has to done without delay;
Diagnosis must be fast in some way;
Resuscitation is prime, come what may.
The golden hour is important
Check for the ABC
Look for the vital parameters,
If you want to save the life!
A hospital’s busiest place,
Where life can ebb away,
If we do not race,
To salvage with great pace!
Where none can ever wait;
Stretcher-trolley stands at the gate;
Personnel are ever-ready on any date;
Waste no time or it will be too late!
poem by John Celes
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My Own Way
I sat down again, knowing the brightened sky,
Returning the exceptional wisdom to the grave;
Full of it I was, when this episode crept on the excitation,
Making it happy, in myself.
I sat at home before the medicine could arrive,
An ambulance adventured far too hard,
Into the territory of a sweet-tempered man,
His illness crept up on him, and took him away.
This sky was devilled, this ground decayed,
For we were in a hospital of disgrace and confinement,
The correcting happened, and we were away,
Like a happy soul my life became its own way.
poem by Naveed Akram
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The Day That Time Would Stop!
The passageway was longer than he thought
He would have said,
It seemed to go forever,
But the words stayed in his head.
That drumming in his ears was surely
Just the lack of sound,
And could it be, he floated,
With his feet just off the ground?
The ambulance had called for him at just
On half past three,
He'd told his wife: ‘Don't bother,
It will go away, you'll see! '
His wife was more determined than she'd
Ever been before,
She dialled up on her mobile
And she waved him, at the door.
‘It's all just fuss and bother, this, ' he thought,
And flushed quite red,
The fellow in the ambulance
Looked grim, and shook his head.
He tried to give him oxygen, then
Called out to his mate:
‘You'd better put your foot down,
Or we might be there too late! '
He felt the lurch of speed, and heard the
Sirens start to wail,
He only felt embarrassment,
‘Such fuss! Beyond the pale! '
But then the light had faded in the
Middle of the day,
And that was when he found himself
Deep in that passageway!
The light became much brighter, at the end
He saw a door,
It slowly started opening,
He couldn't see much more,
But then he floated through it, standing
Stark within this room
Filled wall to wall with flowers that
Had just begun to bloom!
He stood there for a moment, he could not
Believe his eyes,
A crowd of happy people jumped
On out, and yelled: ‘Surprise! '
Then streamers and balloons appeared
And tangled round his feet,
He stared at them in wonder as
His heart had ceased to beat!
His father stood there grinning, he had died
Before his time
While his mother wiped a tear away,
She'd left when he was nine,
And all the aunts and uncles from
His distant memories,
Now stood and charged a glass to him,
And smiled, and shouted: ‘Cheers! '
‘He doesn't know what's happened, give him time, '
Said Uncle Ron,
‘We're just so glad to see you - My!
The weight that you've put on!
You must have seen it coming, all
That pain before you drop;
It's common to us all, you know,
The Day that Time would Stop! '
He paused to think about his wife, and
Wondered if she cried,
Or simply shrugged her shoulders when
She heard that he had died,
The heart that he no longer had
He knew would never mend;
He stood erect and dignified -
A funeral to attend!
poem by David Lewis Paget
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Mystery Child
as i walked through the hospital corridors
i saw this child coming towards ne
her head was shaven and very red.
she looked up and smiled at me
and made my heart skip a beat.
in a voice so soft that i could hardly hear
she wished me joy and good cheer.
i knew right from the start
that this child had a loving heart.
for even though she was in pain
from everything that she had gone through
and it was hard for her to walk
she stopped and smiled and started to talk.
she was born with a sickness at birth
and was daily fighting for her life.
but she had such faith in god above
that she would be alright
and knew that she had to fight.
this battle that they said she could not win
but to her -giving up was a sin.
i started to choke up inside and the tears started to roll
from my eyes.she gently wiped away my tears.
and whispered gently in my ear.
if only the world could see and feel what i have
locked up inside-that god has given me
there would be peace and harmony.
for the lord has shown me what is on the other side when i die
but! i will be here for a very long time.
for there are many hearts i've yet to touch
before i am taken away.
and true love will forever stay.
i started to choke up again, and when i looked up again she was gone.
till this day i ask myself who could this child have been?
that put faith back in my heart and showed me
the unconditional love from god above.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
poem by Louis Rams
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Now the Kids Classic is one of the major fund-raisers for Children's Hospital. Since we started seven years ago, we've raised more than $1 million for the hospital.